It's not a particularly distinguished effort, but for what it is, Ice Age: Continental Drift is OK. And what it is is a fitfully entertaining cartoon that should play well with the undemanding pre-K crowd.
The excitable, acorn-hoarding Scrat of this enduring series sets the plot in motion when his antics cause the Earth's land masses to crack and divide into their familiar formation. During this amusing sequence, the movie displays wit, energy and a sense of fun. After the promising opening, however, tedium sets in when the three lead characters take center stage.
As a result of the land masses breaking apart, the star trio of Manny (voiced by the monotone Ray Romano), Diego (Denis Leary) and Sid (John Leguizamo) end up separated from the rest of their friends and family, trapped on an ice floe along with Sid's annoying grandmother (Wanda Sykes). Back on land, Ellie (Queen Latifah) is leading family and friends toward a land bridge where they plan to reunite with Manny et al.
The catastrophe occurs just as Manny and his daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer) suffer a rift in their relationship. (She disobeys his orders not to hang out with her friends at “the fall;” he fumes with parental dismay.)
Stuck on the ice, the group is intercepted by a band of animal pirates led by Captain Gutt, an evil, charismatic ape voiced with flair by Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones). Excepting Scrat, his simian is the best thing about the movie, one who commands an iceberg as if it were a ship. Among his crew is Shira (Jennifer Lopez), a fellow tiger with whom Diego gets to share some mutual flirting.
Ice Age 4 is a scattershot effort, offering a dark, hallucinatory Siren sequence, a too-quick musical number and an underwritten story. The other, barely-there plot back on land tosses off lessons about staying true to oneself. But the biggest problem with this series is that its main characters just aren't that interesting. If they have to make a any more of these, make Scrat the star.
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2012.
